Winning the lost (Lk 19:10)

[Red33]

What is it going to take for the Holy Spirit to capture the heart and mind of believers to become all things to all people to win the lost to Christ...

1Cor 9:19-24
19 For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more.

20 And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law;
21 To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law.
22 To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.
23 And this I do for the gospel's sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you. 24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.

1Cor 1:26-31
26 For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:

27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:
29 That no flesh should glory in his presence.
30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: 31 That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

We have been redeemed and bought with a price, by our Saviour, to be a showcase of grace and to bring our bodies, with feet shod with the gospel of peace (Eph 6:15), under submission to preach the gospel to every creature (Mk 16:15), to go into the highways and byways and compel them in, that our Father's house might be full (Lk 14:23), to walk along the hedges and talk with those that are downcast and trodden down in this life (Lk 4:18) and to bring glad tidings of good things (Rom 10:15) with the promises of God setting the captives free (Is 61).

To win the lost it's going to take prayer on our knees, obedience through a plan of faith, love to execute that plan and lovingkindness through longsuffering to see it through because we judge that God is faithful to what He has promised.

 

[Red33]

Prov 11:30 The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life and he that winneth souls is wise.

Soul winning is the wisdom of God. Many don't believe in soul winning and never present their bodies as a living sacrifice to go out and win lost souls. Many believers want to make sure that you love and forgive your brother but what about those that need the light of the gospel to shine unto them and what about letting our light so shine before men that they may see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven (Mt 5:16)? Are we doing everything we can through the grace of God and by faith to win the lost?

Don't be offended, but I bet some of us spend more time drinking coffee then we do telling others about the love of God that sent His Son into the world. We probably spend more time watching TV in any given week then we do praying and interceding for others, assembling with believers, hearing and studying the word all combined together. I call that carnality and a lack of wisdom and humility. I am guilty of being this way how about some of you. Can you be honest with God and confess it as sin just like you would confess fornication and lying to others as sin? Some of us just want to do what we want and we don't like having others tell us what we should be doing as believers through the love and grace of God. We don't want others telling us how we should walk by faith, especially when it comes from the pulpit of our local churches. That's why we don't go and hear the word, because we don't want the conviction or have to be accountable for what we might hear with our ears from the pulpit. This is wisdom from above ...

James 5:20 Let him know that he that coverteth a sinner from the error of his way, shall save a soul from death and hide (cover) a mutitude of sins.

 

[Tribe]

Red33

Not to be rude, but many people who are unsaved don’t read the Bible. Many people who CLAIM they are saved don’t read the Bible. Most so-called “free-minded” people DON’T CARE what the Bible says, and there is a growing number of people who don’t believe that the Bible is even accurate or real.

Therefore, you can’t expect to save people by simply throwing Bible scriptures at them; especially scriptures of condemnation or service to a God who they have no faith or belief in.

 

[AnandaHya]

Red33

Not to be rude, but many people who are unsaved don’t read the Bible. Many people who CLAIM they are saved don’t read the Bible. Most so-called “free-minded” people DON’T CARE what the Bible says, and there is a growing number of people who don’t believe that the Bible is even accurate or real.

Therefore, you can’t expect to save people by simply throwing Bible scriptures at them; especially scriptures of condemnation or service to a God who they have no faith or belief in.

so true. Coffee?

I don't know why everyone enjoys beating themselves and others up with how sinful they are instead of speak of what GOD wants us to do.

I'm for practical love. feeding the hungry, visiting orphans and widows, showing true love in practical ways to those who feel lost and abandon. not just talking about doing good and what others should do but going out and doing it yourself. not just giving other people money to do it but actually getting your hands dirty and giving up some of your own precious time and making that one on one connection with those the world ridicule and hate or just want to sweep under the rug and forget because of their poverty and despair.

Not wallowing on how sinful you are and everyone else is but rejoicing in God's righteousness and His mercy and grace and sharing His love and mercy with everyone you encounter by your words and your actions.

too often people say they pray but they do nothing but send the people back out into the cold with empty words and a bad taste for Bible verses that come out of a mouth of one who sits warm and comfortable while they are forced out hungry and in despair. What kind of testimony is that?

James 2:14-16
New King James Version (NKJV)
14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?

I love the Bible but too often people speak the words and the letter of the law and uses that to condemn themselves and others. they do not speak of the heart and the Spirit of Love that God means for people to get from all His words.

 

[Red33]

That post was not meant to condemn anyone but to tell it like it is, whether we like it or not and I did not exclude myself. The scriptures tell it like it is and God never pampers or makes a provision for our flesh. God wants us to go out and be confrontational with the gospel, one on one, and stop making excuses in our flesh to not go or say we are too busy and don't have time because our family and job is more important. To go soul winning is not natural for the flesh or for those that want to be spiritually minded and live by every word of God. The disciples were only with the Lord a short time before He sent them out to preach. Some of us have been saved for years and we never go out and share the gospel with strangers who might be lost, but we have time to go out to eat at our favorite restaurant every week and would never miss it. Do we know how to have priorities in the will of God or do we do what is comfortable through creature comforts of the natural mind of the flesh?

To be a soul winner you have to take up a cross, deny self and follow Christ. Some believers wait for God to bring someone to them to witness to before they share the gospel. If God has waited for sinners to come to Him before He sent His Son, Jesus would have never come. God draws and calls sinners to Himself, that's true, but He does it through preaching and confronting them. When we look at the life of Christ for those three years that He ministered, was He confrontational? ABSOLUTELY! Everywhere He went He was confrontational and was not afraid of offending people as He often did.

Many did not like that and many who got offended went back to their former associations and followed Him no more while others followed from a distance. He was always confronting His disciples, their faith, their beliefs, their forgiveness toward others, how they thought of each others and who was going to be the greatest in the kingdom. They had lots of problems but that did not stop Him from confronting them with the truth and telling it like it is. Jesus confronted many about hell, but believers are afraid to talk about hell with the lost because they are afraid they might offend or turn them off. If we can't take up our cross and confront unbelievers with the truth through the love of God then we are not worthy of Christ to be called a disciple and we are nothing more than carnal believers that walk in the flesh.

 

[Red33]

God can always tell what is in our heart toward Him by what we express toward others and that includes the unsaved sinner who He came to die for by judging and putting away their sin at the cross. We can also tell what is in the believer's heart by the kind of faith that is exercised toward the church and in seeking out the lost. A lost soul can't seek out God so we have to seek them out like our Saviour did in (Lk 19:10). We should remember that we were also lost and separated from God without hope until the glorious gospel shined unto us. God confronted us with the gospel through preaching and through a personal confrontation. God called us and drew us to Himself through that confrontation. Salvation is a personal confrontation with Christ through the members of His body. We have been redeemed to bring redemption and reconciliation to the lost...

2Cor 5:14-21
14 For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:

15 And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.
16 Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.
17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. 21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Does the Bible speak and have something to say to you and I about our ministry as believers? I think it speaks very clearly to our minds and hearts. We have been given a word and ministry of reconciliation of preaching the gospel to the lost and telling them that their sins have not been imputed to them but rather to God's Son, Jesus Christ. They need to hear it and believe it from us through our words...

Jn 17:8-20

8 For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.
9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.
10 And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.
11 And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.
12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.
13 And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
14 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
18 As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.
19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. 20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;

Can we believe in God and trust Him and not believe in the word that God has spoken and given to us through His Son, the inspired Word made flesh who dwelt among men?

 

[AnandaHya]

That post was not meant to condemn anyone but to tell it like it is, whether we like it or not and I did not exclude myself. The scriptures tell it like it is and God never pampers or makes a provision for our flesh. God wants us to go out and be confrontational with the gospel, one on one, and stop making excuses in our flesh to not go or say we are too busy and don't have time because our family and job is more important. To go soul winning is not natural for the flesh or for those that want to be spiritually minded and live by every word of God. The disciples were only with the Lord a short time before He sent them out to preach. Some of us have been saved for years and we never go out and share the gospel with strangers who might be lost, but we have time to go out to eat at our favorite restaurant every week and would never miss it. Do we know how to have priorities in the will of God or do we do what is comfortable through creature comforts of the natural mind of the flesh?

If you make time to eat at your favorite restaurant every week perhaps you can do the same by making a point to visit the homeless, a prison, a nursing home, or an orphanage and talk to them about Jesus.

I know that in our local nursing homes all you have to do is call the activities director and you can do a Bible study for the residents there or visit with them one on one and talk to them. I've found visiting the elderly is more of an educational experience for me personally because they tell me about their lives and how God has worked in it. Their hopes and dreams and disappointments and what helped them get through it. some of the stories all you can do is cry and listen.

There are a lot of people the world just forgets or is too busy to help so where God leads you to go and whoever you meet you should share God's love with. It would be wonderful.

I was speaking to a troubled teen at work and he told me how he lost faith after his father died even though everyone prayed including him. He was angry at the world and rebelling. Another how his father is in prison. Truthfully I don't know what to say to those kids. I just pray and hope that God heals them and leads them to forgiveness and understanding of His love. I offer them respect and I listen. that is all I really know to do besides trying to get them to pass high school and care about their future instead of destroying it with their angry actions and rebellion.

I think God calls and uses wherever we are no matter what we are doing. Even if you sit at home with your family, you can pray together and talk about right and wrong and God's will for our lives. Loving one another is wonderful too.

If God is your best friend wouldn't you want to introduce Him to everybody?

there is a time and a place for everything. Jesus loved both Martha and Mary and Paul and Peter and John but each was unique and lived lives very different in their service to Him. we just have to do whatever God calls us to do without excuses and without telling God maybe later when I feel like it.

It reminds me of this parable:

Matthew 22

1 And Jesus answered and spoke to them again by parables and said: 2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, 3 and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding; and they were not willing to come. 4 Again, he sent out other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fatted cattle are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding.”’ 5 But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business. 6 And the rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them. 7 But when the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. 8 Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. 9 Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.’ 10 So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.
11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. 12 So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and[a] cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
14 “For many are called, but few are chosen.”

you know i always wonder the symbolize behind the guest who did not have a wedding garment? People have always told me that Jesus clothes people and quote these verses but no one talks about the one cast into outer darkness... hmmm....

Revelation 3:17-19
New King James Version (NKJV)
17 Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked— 18 I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. 19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.

I guess when you look at it. it talks about material wealth and worldly wisdom versus God's gold, and eye salve which is wisdom from above and love that covers sins and trespass?

sorry i'm rabbling lol. i do that alot.

 

[Steve4U]

Thank you AnandaHya, well said.

I have been an activities director and, yes, sometimes the best we can do is listen. That is a ministry too.

And also, when someone passes away, (sometimes we don't know what to do or say) much of the time it is fine to just be there. That is sufficient, and appreciated, and we need not trouble ourselves about it, just be quietly helpful if the opportunity presents itself, and that is well.

That's really all I had to say.

Good post Red, a trumpet call to action, and tribe. Bless you all.

There is certainly enough to be going on with if we dwell in the Lord, in the encounters we have through the day.

For the evangelist, all power for the word to be cried out to the people that they may be saved.